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FatLab Web Support

Founded by Shane Larrabee, a web development veteran of over 17 years, FatLab is a website maintenance company focused on providing the absolute best client support experience. We’re on-call to handle systems monitoring, security patches, upgrades, bug fixes, site enhancements, content updates and many more website maintenance services.

FatLab will not try to sell you a new website. We keep sites up and running so your business is up and running. Our focus is why we are able to support you and your site more efficiently and more effectively than our competitors.

FatLab uses a robust online web support ticket system for clients to create and track support requests 24/7/365. In addition, each of our clients is served by a primary account manager.

A Virginia, USA Company

Washington, DC for you politically oriented folks

FatLab is a registered Limited Liability Company (LLC) in the state of Virginia and was founded in downtown Washington, DC. We have a 100% American talent pool. Our client base extends through the United States and Canada with about 70% of our clients being based in the major business centers of the East Coast: New York, Baltimore, DC, Atlanta and Miami. We can put on a tie and meet in the board rooms of K Street or sport shorts and a fleece (when it’s 50 degrees and raining) and meet over a cup of coffee in Seattle. Then again, we could just meet online and get some work done… your call.

A Small Company with BIG Infrastructure

FatLab has partnered with Rackspace, Inc. as our data and infrastructure provider. All FatLab dedicated infrastructure is held in a Managed Operations account within the Dallas, TX Rackspace Data Center where systems are monitored 24/7/365 by a dedicated engineering team. Rackspace provides us everything from redundant internet/network connections, backups, physical security, uninterruptible power, network security, server patching and much more. While many companies like ours lease a shared VPS and load their clients up on a budget plan, we have made some large investments into redundant and secure hosting solutions for our clients.

All American Talent

FatLab is proud to have all American talent, i.e. we’re not sending your work overseas for a markup.

No Cubicles Here

FatLab has taken a unique approach to building a team and work environment. The goal being: Let’s prove this “internet thing”. We live in a world where our Alexandria, VA office number is answered in Michigan and then transferred to the appropriate person whether they be in Washington, DC, Virginia, Costa Rica or Mexico. We work East Coast business hours but that doesn’t always mean we are on the East Coast. From centralized code repositories, ticket systems, video chats and VOIP phone systems, we have built a system that allow us to work from wherever we are AND wherever you are. This whole “internet thing” may just actually work.

Shane Larrabee founded FatLab, LLC in 2010 after over a decade of web development experience amongst agencies, studios and other businesses. Shane specializes in back-end development (PHP) within content management systems such as WordPress.

More than a developer, Shane considers himself a problem solver to his clients – hence the unique support focused business model.

Shane has developed and supported sites for an uncountable number of organizations around the world including political campaigns, governments, trade/issue/member based associations and many small and large businesses. From the Fortune 500 to the smallest startup, to national PACs to grassroots movements and from K Street to Wall street – his experience spans the gamut. Shane lives in Brasilito, Costa Rica with his wife and daughter, works East Coast business hours and makes regular trips back to the Washington, DC area for work.

Ana “Ritz” C. PenarandaManaging Director : Washington, DC

Ritz is our Managing Director and a Project Manager with over 14 years of website project management experience. She brings a great dynamic to both our team and clients with a “let’s get it done” attitude for every project she manages. She has a real love for solving a client’s problems; finding the right play, implementing a smart solution, and then seeing the results.

Having worked in the association and nonprofit world in the past, Ritz is very good at looking at a project from the client’s perspective. She has exceptional customer service skills and has an ability to build long lasting relationships.

Niki SebastinoDeveloper : Virginia

Niki specializes in front-end web development with the philosophy that each project should bring about great results and good karma. She enjoys creating custom responsive websites in WordPress and other content management systems using HTML, CSS, Sass, jQuery, PHP, and MySQL.

Niki lives in Virginia where her real job is as a taxi driver and cheerleader for her 13 year old son who plays travel baseball with an emphasis on the word travel. Niki is also the only member of the FatLab team to own a horse.

Ryan WadsworthDeveloper : Mexico

Ryan Wadsworth is a web developer with over 10 years development experience working with a number of content management systems including WordPress and Drupal.

His technical expertise extends to working within the server environment (LAMP), MySQL, custom PHP development and front-end technologies/frameworks including javascript and Angular.js.

Ryan has been working with FatLab for 6+ years. Ryan has a B.A. in Latin American and Latino Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz and currently resides with his family in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas México.

Dan UngerConsultant & Developer : Washington, DC

Dan Unger is a web developer with 20 years of experience in the IT field. After obtaining advanced degrees in history, Dan earned a master’s degree in computer science. He focuses on back-end development in languages such as PHP, .NET, Java, and Perl, with expertise in MySQL, SQL Server, and Oracle databases.

For the past five years he has specialized in the Drupal content management system, as well as work in WordPress and MVC systems like CodeIgniter. Other skills include Javascript (and the jQuery language) and web usability and accessibility techniques.

Our Web Support System

Web support is more than an email address

One of the most common things we hear from clients who are considering leaving their current provider: unresponsiveness. Our entire system is built around a fast response time and client service.

At FatLab Web Support we have worked hard to put together a support desk system that allows us to be responsive to our clients’ needs. Regardless of urgency level, we know it is important that you get confirmation when your support request has been received. That is why we put a true system in place, not just a generic support@ email box to be checked on occasion.

We receive instant notification of your issue

When you create a ticket it immediately notifies us via email and sends an alerts to our mobile phones and tablets. You can track the progress of your tickets online, via email or even give us a call.

Average initial response time: under two hours.

Worried about reaching us? Don't be.

We are available via multiple communications channels.

Phones

Online ticket system

Email

We work hard to keep you up to date.

We make it our priority to keep you updated on the status of your web support request. With each update you will receive an email and a record will be made to the ticket. In addition, the system securely archives all communications and time for easy reference.

Full Transparency: All communications are kept online.

With a complete history of communications regarding a specific issue we are able to review an accurate history if questions were to arise on the same or future task.

Full Transparency: All billing information is available to you 24/7/365.

Keeping Billing Clear and Honest

Full Transparency: Granular task specific billing.

All billable time is recorded for each and every task and in full view of you, the client. In addition, all invoices will reference each completed ticket by number and the total time billed. At any time you can review the amount of time applied to your account.

Call us. Seriously. We love to talk.

We love to talk and spend a lot of our time consulting and advising our clients – we don’t avoid the phone. If an action item comes from our conversation a support ticket will be created immediately. If a ticket needs clarification and discussion we will arrange a call with you at your convenience.

Our phone lines are answered by a (real) human during business hours. They will be happy to patch you through or if someone is not immediately available a message will be taken. Calls are typically returned in less than 2 hours during business hours and if a critical issue were to arise, our team will ensure your message is delivered ASAP… no dead voicemail boxes.

703.662.5792 / 888.742.2131

What our clients say

We work with some great companies and some great people! It’s flattering that so many were willing to allow us to include them on our website. Without our clients, we wouldn’t be here… this is not something we will ever take for granted.

Dolores Alonso, Vice President of Membership & Business Development, FPSA

We could not be happier than we are with FatLab. They remain responsive to each and every request and have acted immediately when any technical issue has arisen. FatLab put together a unique plan just for us and did so at a flat monthly rate, which makes budgeting easier. We look forward to working with FatLab for years to come.

Rachel Brocious, Director, Strategic Accounts, Sage Growth Partners

FatLab has been a consistent partner from day one. They’ve assisted us in full website rebuilds, complex custom applications, website maintenance and hosting, and regular website maintenance and fixes. We consider FatLab to be a fully integrated part of our team at Sage Growth Partners and they are a pleasure to work with on an almost daily basis.

Fred Lawrence, Marketing Director, Blue Ridge Partners

FatLab took over our hosting and website maintenance over a year ago. FatLab has since provide all the services our previous major hosting provider lacked (firewall, backups, malware scans and more) and most importantly they have proven to be a reliable and trustworthy partner.

Andrew Schulkind, President, Andigo New Media

Fatlab has been an invaluable partner for Andigo New Media for more than 4 years. We regularly rely on the FatLab team to help us support and maintain many of our client websites. They keep us informed and have never failed to deliver, even under the tightest deadlines.

Thomas Frank, Chief Creative Office, Delucchi Plus

When schedules get tight, we call on FatLab. FatLab, is a crucial partner for both execution and hosting infrastructure. With FatLab, we know it will get taken care of.

Josh S., President, Trevian International

With over 10 websites hosted with FatLab, including some high-profile corporate and government assets, to say I “trust” them would be an understatement. FatLab has continued to provide the highest quality (and secure) services I can find.

Ana C. Penaranda, Director, Web Project Management, SOCMA

SOCMA has partnered with Shane Larrabee of FatLab, LLC for the management of our many websites and digital assets for over 12 years. From builds, to dedicated infrastructure, to day-to-day support. You could say that for over a decade SOCMA has relied on the services provided by FatLab and these services have been delivered without failure and with a 100% success rate.

Missy Harp, Finance, Test, and Administration Manager, ABFPRS

The American Board of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (ABFPRS), a medical certification organization, does not have the technical resources in-house to manage our web presence. We rely on FatLab to help keep our website up to date, consult on best practices and ensure it remains online and stable for our membership and the public.

Deanne Kasim, President, Santesys

We migrated our site to FatLab after becoming increasingly disappointed in the level of support provided by two major hosting companies. FatLab has filled this need for us by providing timely and reliable support each and every time we have needed it.

Gary Braun, Vice President, Braun Film and Video, Inc.

It hasn’t mattered if it is the middle of the day, late at night, the weekend or 5:00pm on Friday. When something urgent has come up, FatLab has responded with a solution within minutes each and every time. This is why we continue our 4+ year relationship with them.

Morgan Pierce, Marketing Coordinator, Incentive Solutions

We entrust 3 large high-traffic websites under the WebTotal.care plan at FatLab. Having retained them in early 2016, I can attest to the fact that the client service is exemplary, we have not experienced any outages and every single challenge has been met and exceeded in regards to our expectations.

Stephanie Manor Chew, President, Media Driven Results

We contacted FatLab after one of our client’s sites had come under attack and the current host had taken it offline. FatLab was able to stop the attack, get the site behind a firewall and provide stable hosting in a just a matter of hours. FatLab has remained incredible responsive to all of requests since that time.

A WordPress plugin developed by FatLab that allows site users to share secure information (passwords, etc) via a page within their WordPress site. To enable simply include a shortcode on any page within your site.

Our Next Crazy Idea Here

Who knows what we'll think of next. Maybe we'll actually brew that beer we have been talking about. "FatLab Stout" has such a nice sound to it. Then again, the hoppiness of an IPA sounds pretty good too.